Today I got up early, met up with my brother and caught the train into London, (there was no point trying to drive into London in the heart of rush hour!) where we met up with some of our cousins and their families for the cremation of my uncle, their father. He actually died last year, but left his body to a London medical college who have released his body back to the family. The service was short, and rather distant. My cousins had managed to chose the music which was to accompany the coffin into the chapel, the music that played us out and the hymn that was sung, or be it just one verse! Despite the somber occasion we all managed a smile as Benny Hills theme tune began to play and Uncles coffin entered. He would have laughed with us. After the service my brother and I caught the train home again. Today was doubly difficult for us as it's Dads 4th anniversary of death, which is why Mum didn't make the journey with us. He and Mum had been on a cruise when he died. I miss him and think of him very often, I wonder what he would think of the things we have all done in the past 4 years. I think he would be upset at the divide that seems to have appeared in the family, as are we and my cousins.... very sad.

Wet wet wet.

I am not referring to the music group, but rather the weather! Yesterday I was at work, and at one point my crew mate and I thought we may have to call out the RN LI (we were nowhere near the sea), the rain came down so hard and fast that we were able to watch the road in front of us flooding! We even had hail! Remarkably we didn't do a single weather (rain, flood, rta) related job! All but one of our jobs were referred through the on call doctors!! grr, and all but one of those had been diagnosed(wrongly) over the phone..... Note to self, try and get on the on call doctors crystal ball reading course would save going out to at least half the jobs! even if the diagnosis was wrong...hey it works for them!! Once home though I settled down to watch the NFL, my team was being screened, yay,.....not so yay, we got trounced 32-3. This morning I went up to the stables to put the girls out, as the blonde bird had done them yesterday whilst I was at work I hadn't realised that the puddle by the gate had turned into a rather large pond! Nor had I realised that my very old wellies had perished.... need I say more? Having sorted them out and changed my socks I took the dog out for a run, or rather a squelch, the fields we walked in were full of puddles and mud, oh and did I mention the rain, for a moment I wished I was back in the ambulance watching the road flood... but only for a moment, the dog brought me back to my senses by laying in the biggest puddle she could find..... Aikido tonight surely that will be dry?

Twiglet

It's not until you look back at photos that you can see the difference in things, I was looking through some photos of Twiglet today and was suddenly aware of how big she had got and also how much paler her spines are now.
In a few weeks time I intend to do the same with photos of me! Oh yes! I have been going to Slimming world (again, after months of "can't be bothered") this time I have added swimming the gym and of course Aikido and walking to the mix, I have lost weight quite fast and intend to keep at it this time and then stay at the weight and size I end up at. No more of this faffing around.

Houdini

For the last few weeks, Mouse has been managing to escape from the paddock, well the whole field was split into three but she just marched through the electric fencing as if it wasn't there! Very annoying. Then the main catch on the gate failed and she escaped out onto the footpath that runs along one side of the field, this was sometime at night because the local vicar was just taking his dogs for their last walk of the day (somewhere around 11pm) and came face to face with her! fortunately she dived into the paddock next to ours and he was able to shut her in!
This understandably has worried me and annoyed a few people, so over the last two days Lou, the Blonde bird and I had decided to get a stronger pulsar for the electric fence, (the other option was to run the fence off the over head power cables, but we couldn't find anyone willing to attach the cable!)((that was a joke no calls to the RSPCA please)).
Once at the shop we realised that the pulsar we had should be doing the job, Lou decided to get a new leisure battery, new electric tape and an voltage tester thingy.
Back at the yard we attached the battery and went along with the meter, well about 10 feet along the tape the current stopped......then there was nothing at all, it was no wonder she was pushing through, the electric fence wasn't electric after all.
Lou you are an absolute star, who else would have got new tape on a whim? We undid the tape on the fence and ran out the new then attached the pulsar again.
Yes, electric pulses right to the far end of the field, OK mouse walk through it now!
We decided that they should come in at night now as we are getting quite a bit of rain, that and the wind they were both looking a little sorry for themselves.
So now they are snug in their stables at night and safely behind electric fencing that works during the day..... and long may it last!

Back to work

My first two shifts back at work were from opposite ends of the spectrum! I was third manning this week as I have been off work for two months! Third manning is when you work with a full crew, I was lucky to be working with two really lovely people for my first shift back, we decided to split the shift into three four hour segments, for the first four hours I was just an observer, I would have helped but we actually didn't have a job! the second four hours I was to be attending, we had a couple of jobs but neither of them were difficult, one we left where she was as she didn't require hospital the other was a fractured neck of femur so we took him in. When my four hours attending were up I drove till the end of the shift, I think we had another job but everyone was saying how quiet the day was... a nice way to come back to work! The second day however was totally different! Again we split the shift three ways, we had cover move after cover move interspersed with the odd job, our first (and only)meal break was at three pm after a two hour resus, after a busy afternoon we then managed to get a late job!! Well, I thought we were being led into a barn! It turned out to be the front room. The rubbish and food and paper and "stuff" was piled from floor to ceiling with just a walkway through to the bedroom and two doors that were shut, they had suffered two house fires but just left the burned walls bare electrical wires, and holes in the ceiling, which led to the roof space as this was a bungalow, the cobwebs and dust were so thick, we were coughing. Our patient was in the bedroom on the bed, I don't want to comment on this room as it makes my skin crawl! Our patient had suffered a CVA (stroke) and we needed to get her into hospital as fast as we could, the problem was our carry chair wouldn't fit through the walkway, in the end we called the fire service who issued us all with masks, as the dust was even worse once they began to move everything. We eventually got our patient out and shipped off to hospital. One hour and twenty minutes past our finish time we arrived back in base to hand over to the night crew. After my first shift back I had to drive straight to aikido, so I was glad not to have had an overtime job then!

Pyramids

After my extremely late night last night you would have thought I would sleep in.... well unfortunately I didn't!
I was up doing laundry, shopping sorting out the animals....
It is just Lit'lun and I at home this weekend, My husband has gone on a residential course and won't be home until tomorrow and Beth has gone up to her boyfriends Uni, to stay with him for the weekend.
After doing the chores I asked Lit'lun what she would like to do.... play badminton and go for a swim was her instant reply, so we did.
Two hours later we got back home where I started again with the laundry (towels swimsuits and sports kit) Its strange but when all the family is away I wish they were at home and when they are all at home I take them for granted somewhat.... Why do I always want the opposite of what I have?
The one good thing, both my husband and I agree on is that when he is away I can read Terry Pratchett's disc world in bed! ..... When he is at home I annoy him, disrupt him, keep him awake because the books are so funny I literally laugh out loud, all the way through them!
Well that's it for tonight I am going to curl up in bed with my favorite Disc world book.

Blowing a hoolie

I actually don't know what a hoolie is! I will have to google it once I have finished writing.
Earlier on I went down to give the horses their hay and feed, the Blonde bird and I had decided that we would leave them out, as even though the weather was going to be 75mph winds they are able to get in the field shelter and under the trees.
Many years ago, I think it was 1985, we had a massive storm, I had been out to a night club with some friends and on the way home we were getting more and more angry at our "designated driver" because of his erratic driving. It was only when we found several roads impassable due to trees down that we truly believed him when he promised he had no control over the swerving the car was doing.
Once back home I began to get worried about my horses, (not the same ones we have now, these have long since gone to the pastures in the sky) at the time we had five, four of them were stabled in a dutch barn with the fifth in an outside stable adjoining it, she had breathing problems and had more airflow outside.
Well, my friend Dawn, who was staying with me over night, and I had both been drinking so after Kevin dropped us home my mum (who had waited up for us as it was such bad weather) got dressed and drove us down to the stables. This should have been a mile and a half drive, but with so many trees down we ended up doing a nine mile round trip! Dawn who wasn't in the slightest bit horsey hid behind my mum, who is a tiny bit horsey!! Whilst I let all the horses out into the seven acres, they must have thought I was mad putting them out on such an awful night.
The following morning when we got down to the stables "Stream", (the horse with breathing problems) had she been in her stable may very well have died! The whole thing was flat, and the roof was blown completely off.
I hate the sound of the wind when its bad like it was then and is tonight, it always makes me anxious, which is why, if you look at the time this was posted, I am still awake now!

Bokken

Yesterday evening I set off for Aikido, in the knowledge that I may not be able to lift a cup to my mouth today! Obelix, who takes the Monday class has us working hard, usually within the first 10 minutes I have worked up a sweat! (sorry a little graphic) .....Yesterday was no exception, we worked hard, the first half of the two hour session had us learning some throwing and pinning techniques, the second half was so much more fun!! Weapons work, I would like to point out that I am not a violent person whatsoever but I have a thing about the Bokken, a wooden replica sword, I love it. On my second ever session, there was a move I just couldn't get, it was making me frustrated, Caine, who was my partner for this practice went and got his bokken and demonstrated the same move only using "it", not a partner, he got me to do the same then once I had caught on told me to do the same this time to him! It made so much sense (anyone who is familiar with aikido will know why) from then on if I didn't get it, he showed me using the bokken. As an anniversary present my husband bought me my own (it was an early present) when I took it to the club, Caine said he would sand and oil it for me and weave some tape I had chosen around the handle. Yesterday was the first time I have actually used it in a lesson and I love it, even if I can't practice what I learnt at home! ( the ceiling gets in the way!)
Oh and this morning...... I lifted my cup easily, either Obelix was easy on us or I am getting used to the work!
The picture shows my Bokken and Jo.

Alone....

After my husband went to work this morning, I got up and decided to go to the remembrance day service at the church.
All the kids were out or away so I went alone, I sat alone in an old fashioned pew in a church I have never been to before. I didn't know anyone there, but everyone there obviously knew each other.
When it came to the act of remembrance, the laying of wreathes, the single trumpeter playing last post....... I wasn't alone....
I was standing with people have who lost family members, friends and colleagues during WWI, WWII, and all the conflicts and wars since.
I was definitely not alone....

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

A Memory of Milo.....

RIP Little fella........

Guy Fawkes night.......

Well its that time of year again, when every shop that can, will try and sell as many fireworks as they possibly can.... from about mid September, then from that date most weekends you can hear the flippin' things going off everywhere.
I seem to recall writing about this last year, well we are in the same situation again, the dog begins to prowl around the house as soon as it gets dark, as she knows that the scary bangs and whizzes will begin again and she will be either attached to my heels as if she's glued there or else she will squeeze herself into the smallest gap she can find, even with the television or radio on she still hears them. well its now the 6th of November so I guess she will only have to put up with it for ANOTHER TWO WEEKS OR SO!! Grr.
Its not just my dog, lots of my friends have to keep their cats in and as for wildlife, other than the fear factor there is the hedgehogs hibernating in bonfire issue, especially the bonfires that were started to be made a while back.
Why can't we just celebrate Guy Fawkes night on the night?

A Fresh Start.

For the last two months I have not been well! I was signed off work by my doctor for a couple of reasons, one which may result in an operation!
During the last two months I have been away for a few days in the west country, that was my time out, and also taken up Aikido!
So I am now drawing a line under it and starting again. (Blog wise that is).
I thought I would add this photo of me throwing myself down the fish ladder on the River Rother, shortly before the start of the raft race.
The Search and Rescue team of which I am a member used the time before hand to do some swift water training......aannnddd it seemed like a good idea at the time! getting back up the ladder was much more difficult!